The Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs a massive system of hospitals and clinics that cared for 5.8 million veterans last year, is doing less, not more, to identify what went wrong during adverse events to make sure it doesn not happen again.

A report out late Friday from the Government Accountability Office found that the number of investigations of adverse events — the formal term for medical errors — plunged 18 percent from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2014.

The National Center for Patient Safety, the office in the Veterans Health Administration responsible for monitoring investigations of medical errors, "has limited awareness of what hospitals are doing to address the root causes of adverse events, " the report concluded.

The examinations shrank just as medical errors grew 7 percent over these years, a jump that roughly coincided with 14 percent growth in the number of veterans getting medical care through VA's system. A report out late Friday from the Government Accountability Office found that the number of investigations of adverse events — the formal term for medical errors — plunged 18 percent from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2014.